Word
egregious
Phoneticsegre·gious
US/ɪˈɡɹidʒəs/
UK/ɪɡɹˈiːdʒəs/
Definition
adj. extremely bad and very easy to notice.
adj. outstandingly bad; shocking or flagrant in a way that is impossible to ignore.
Examples
“The report contains several egregious errors.”
“The company faced heavy fines after the court found evidence of egregious safety violations at the factory.”
“While minor administrative oversights are common, the systematic falsification of data represents an egregious breach of scientific ethics that cannot be overlooked by the committee.”
Examples
simple
“The report contains several egregious errors.”
contextual
“The company faced heavy fines after the court found evidence of egregious safety violations at the factory.”
complex
“While minor administrative oversights are common, the systematic falsification of data represents an egregious breach of scientific ethics that cannot be overlooked by the committee.”
Usage
Usually placed before the noun it describes.
Teaching tip
While the word originally meant 'distinguished' in a positive way, in modern English it is almost exclusively used to describe something negative.
Real-World Examples
“The plan to sell off a chunk of the World Cup is just the most egregious example.” “On the former, instances of much more egregious displays of ego in academia are far from rare, without any apparent damage to the standing or careers of many professors.” Etymology
From Latin ēgregius, from e- (“out of”), + grex (“flock”), + English adjective suffix -ous, from Latin suffix -osus (“full of”); reflecting the positive connotations of "standing out from the flock".
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/egregious